Have you visited us since we opened for the 2025 season? Hopefully, you have noticed the wonderful changes to Galleries 1, 2 and 3. From a fresh coat of paint, new floors in galleries 2 and 3, and wonderfully refurbished wood trims around display cases, these galleries certainly feel different now and we are very grateful to have tackled these maintenance tasks within the project.
These works have given our collections team and our community partners the perfect space to install our updated exhibitions. Featuring new natural history interpretation, a new taxidermy process display and striking new exhibitions of Kenyan, Ugandan, South Sudanese and Ethiopian material culture. The transformation is evident and the feedback from our visitors has been very positive.
The enabling works for phase 2 are now underway. Phase 2 replaces the roofs above galleries 4, 5, 6 and 7 and tackles internal maintenance tasks including floors, ceilings, redecoration and remediating internal damp issues. Our preparations will involve decanting some objects from these galleries, or protecting them in situ, which will mean that they close for a time.
Gallery 6 is one of our most popular galleries with families as it contains the handling collection and is the traditional location for family-friendly craft-based activities. Gallery 6 fans need not worry – we have a plan to keep your favourite elements of the experience alive!
We want to extend a big thank you to Goodsell & Son, our Principal Contractor on this project, our project managers MacConvilles Chartered Surveyors, our Architect Lee-Evans Partners and Vibration Monitoring Specialists Bickerdike Allen. All our project partners have worked with the greatest level of care and consideration for both our visitors and collections. The project remains on schedule and is due to finish in early June.
Thank you to all our visitors for your ongoing support. We are committed to ensuring you have a wonderful visit to our museum every time and we are delighted to thank Goodsell & Son for their generous sponsorship of our Bricktacular Adventures event, coming to the museum on the 13th – 15th June. Thanks to them, tickets are on sale now at no extra charge to our normal admission prices; Adult £5, Concession £4.50, Child £4.50 and Infants Free. Pre-booking is highly recommended!
Our regular open days are Friday – Sunday and Bank Holidays so come along and see the changes for yourself.
MEND is funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and is administered by Arts Council England.
